The present invention broadly relates to zipper joins or connections for garments and, more specifically, pertains to a new and improved configuration of a zipper join or connection for an article of apparel, especially shirts and blouses, and a new and improved method of fabricating the zipper join or connection. The present invention also pertains to an article of apparel comprising the new and improved zipper join or connection and a method of fabricating such an article of apparel.
Generally speaking, the zipper join or connection of the present invention comprises a zipper fastener having a first zipper half and a second zipper half, an edge region of a first panel of apparel fabric, an edge region of a second panel of apparel fabric, an outwardly returned simple hem fold at the edge region of the first panel and an inwardly returned simple hem fold at the edge region of the second panel.
The method for forming the zipper join or connection comprises the steps of outwardly returning a first simple hem fold at an edge region of a first panel of apparel fabric and inwardly returning a second simple hem fold at an edge region of a second panel of apparel fabric.
The article of apparel of the present invention has a zipper join or connection comprising a zipper fastener having a first zipper half and a second zipper half, a first panel of apparel fabric having an edge, a second panel of apparel fabric having an edge, an outwardly returned first simple hem fold and an inwardly returned second simple hem fold.
The method of the present invention for fabricating an article of apparel having a zipper join comprises the steps of removing a first panel and a second panel for the article of apparel from a length of apparel fabric such that the first panel and the second panel each have a respective join edge, forming an outwardly returned first simple hem fold in the first panel and forming an inwardly returned second simple hem fold in the second panel to form an outer lap.
It is known to the art, for instance from the commonly assigned Swiss Pat. No. 595,068, patented Sept. 30, 1977, to employ zipper fasteners in shirts and blouses. Heretofore known zipper joins or connections of this type have the disadvantage that economically feasible configurations fail to provide or reliably ensure continuity of a visual pattern of the apparel fabric from one panel across the zipper join or connection to the other panel.
Articles of apparel, especially shirts and blouses, are often provided with woven or imprinted patterns. Such patterns generally have characteristics such as stripes which extend either longitudinally of the article of apparel, i.e. vertically, or laterally to the article of apparel, i.e. horizontally, or both. It is esthetically desirable for lateral elements of the pattern to maintain linear continuity across the full width of the article of apparel. It is undesirable for such lateral elements to be out of register, i.e. longitudinally misaligned, across the zipper join or connection. Longitudinally extending pattern elements generally exhibit repetitive characteristics characterized by a uniform lateral pitch or pitch spacing. It is desirable for the pitch spacing of such longitudinally extending pattern elements to continue uniformly across the zipper join or connection without interruption or alteration of the pitch spacing. Heretofore known zipper joins or connections for articles of apparel and methods for fabricating such zipper joins or connections do not guarantee the above-mentioned types of continuity of the visual pattern.